Chapter 14
The moment the pressure came upon the candidates, Lyu Liang’s Divine Sense had immediately put up a defense. The pressure was a specific attack on his Divine Soul, therefore it instantly defeated those with a weaker Divine Sense. However, the stimulation at such a level was not enough to harm Lyu Liang, whose Divine Sense had reached the stage of Gold Core.
At the same time when the authoritative voice finished speaking, a wide path suddenly opened up amidst the protective layer around the Sword Character Immortal Palace. Emerging from within first were eight cultivators who were emitting powerful aurae. Following behind them was an old man with gray eyebrows, cladded in a golden robe and carrying a long, silver sword on his back.
"The Eight Great Immortals and Hunyuan Sword Immortal, the leader of Sword Character Immortal Palace! Good heavens! How were all the big shots of Sword Character Immortal Palace coming out to meet them! It was rumored that only one Fairy Immortal would come forward to participate in the challenge!" Those with some knowledge of its disciple selection process were getting agitated.
So was Lyu Liang shocked at the sight of these many immortals. What was going on? However, before anyone could recover from the shock, another unexpected thing happened. They saw Hunyuan Sword Immortal retreating to the side and bowing towards the middle of the path, and immediately three more people emerged from the path. They were a middle-aged man with bright, fierce eyes who was wearing a white robe, a slit-eyed lady with faint eyebrows, wearing a long red robe, who looked to be around 30 years old, and another lady in red clothes who looked be 28 years old.
"Good heavens! That, that, that’s… the founding father of Sword Character! He is none other than the Almighty Immortal of Sword Character Immortal Palace who is listed among the Immortal Allies! Ah.. and the lady next to him is Xuan Nyu Fairy, who is the founder of Xuan Nyu Sect and also one of the Immortal Allies!" The candidates were no doubt overwhelmed by their presence.
As the two Golden Immortal Powerful figures scanned the crowd of cultivators who had come to participate in the recruitment ceremony, Xuan Nyu Fairy broke into a charming smile.
The cultivators went into a daze fixing their their gaze this beautiful fairy that the surround seemed to have faded. Even Lyu Liang’s eyes were drawn to her.
"Wake up, lad!" Suddenly, there was little piercing pain to his sea of consciousness and Lyu Liang came to his senses. It was Blackie. His voice started ringing in Lyu Liang’s sea of consciousness. "You have fallen into the trap of their illusions! How could this man who had attained the Almighty Immortal status still be playing these tricks on the younger generations? Quick, look around and you will realize that there were still some who had not been deceived by the illusions. They will be your competitor later on!"
Lyu Liang shuddered and began looking around. In that instant, he saw four others who were not affected by the illusion. One of which was a man wearing black clothes and a straw hat on his head. He had lowered his head and went into deep thought.
There were three others who were standing together who seemed to know each other. The one on the left was a young girl with impeccable complexion and beautiful features and she was drawn to Xuan Nyu Fairy and looking at her curiously. Next to her was a handsome young man in green clothes, who was scanning the crowd. When his eyes met that of Lyu Liang, he nodded as an indication of friendliness. The last of the three was a dark and burly man who was smiling a silly smile at the young man in green.
At this moment, the founding father of Sword Character, who was frowning slightly, shook his head and laughed bitterly, sighing. In that instant, all the cultivators who were taken in by the illusions awoke suddenly and looked as if they were lost.
"Little sister, it’s been a long time since we last saw each other. You are still that willful little girl in the past. I can’t imagine you are actually the founder of a sect," the founding father of Sword Character said gleefully while looking at her.
"Elder brother, I am not like you. You are too serious! I am just a little jealous that when you are doing your recruitment, it gets lonely where I am!" Xuan Nyu Fairy pretended to pout and look unhappy.
"Even if there are so many people candidates here today, eventually only a few would be accepted. How could we compare with the collective capability of Xuan Nyu Sect? Actually, if the rules for recruiting your disciples…" The founding father of the Sword Character sighed.
"Stop it, Elder brother! I have made a mental calculation and concluded that only by doing so could I find his whereabouts…" Suddenly, the smile on Xuan Nyu Fairy’s face disappeared and her face was washed over with melancholia.
"Sigh… Such a long time had passed, why don’t you just let it go… I’m sorry, it’s my fault raising this up. Oh yes, what is your intention in bringing your disciple here today?" The founding father of Sword Character quickly tried to change the topic as he started to feel the heavy atmosphere.
Xuan Nyu Fairy eventually came around after losing her concentration for a moment, and she transmitted sound saying, "You know that Ying’er
"Erm? That’s interesting!" said the founding father of Sword Character using sound transmission, as his eyes sparkled.
"However, Ying’er said the vision was not concrete but rather unclear. However, it appeared that the man he would be marrying is among those who came to this recruitment ceremony. This is why I brought her here. I’m going to take a good look at these Qi Refining young men! Whoever is this young man who is able to win the heart of my disciple with special bodily constitution!" Xuan Nyu Fairy said with angst, and continued, "If that day comes for my disciple to be wedded, I would be expecting you, my elder brother, to send me a wedding gift! I thought Little Tian would make a good gift! You may give him to me when you have nullified your contract with him!"
"That will be as good as taking my life! Little Tian and I are like blood brothers, how could I do such a thing! Fine, if that day ever comes, you may enter the treasure store of Sword Character Immortal Palace to freely choose a treasure for yourself, and I will give it to you!" The founding father of Sword Character eventually made this promise to her.
"That would be giving you a great discount! My disciple would one day be more successful than me! I wonder who is this man! Let’s begin the ceremony quickly!" Xuan Nyu Fairy was excited.
During this entire time, Lyu Liang was also observing the surrounding very carefully. Apart from sensing the immense pressure, he was not able to sense anything else. He thought maybe it was because the level of his capabilities was far from that of the others.
On the other hand, Lyu Liang was totally mesmerized by the girl standing behind Xuan Nyu Fairy. Clothed in red palace apparel, her features were so perfectly beautiful and her skin so fair that Lyu Liang could not take his eyes off her!
It seemed that the girl in red could sense Lyu Liang’s eyes looking at her and she suddenly lifted up her head and locked eyes with Lyu Liang! But just for a split second, and she looked down again.
"Is he the one? But he looked so candide, could I have sensed wrongly? That’s possible! After all, the Tao of Heaven in me had just been awakened. It must be a mistake!" the girl in red thought uncertainly. She was not aware that Xuan Nyu Fairy had already noticed her reaction. She merely smiled and kept silent.
"For all those standing below, the test of Spiritual Roots will begin now!" the tall skinny man in a green robe who was among the eight great Fairy Immortal announced. It was then that Lyu Liang’s attention was snapped back from reality from the girl in red. "Blackie, do you supposed they would find out about me?" After all, he had been taught by his father since young to be a sincerely, faithful person, and what he was doing at this moment was against this principle.
"Erm?" Lyu Liang realized that Blackie had been keeping quiet since the beginning. Through his Divine Soul, he could sense that Blackie was communicating with someone else and therefore was not even aware that Lyu Liang was talking to him.
Once the tall skinny immortal finished with his words, suddenly innumerous light sparks began falling from the sky. Finally, each of these light sparks fell in front of each cultivator who came to participate in this ceremony and transformed into a number token each. As Lyu Liang looked more carefully at the token in front of him, he realized the number on it was 666!
"The number token in front of each of you belong to you. From now on, each of you is to safekeep your token! In a while, you are to line up according to sequence based on the number on your token. You will be divided into groups of 50 and you will approach the test accordingly in an orderly manner. At the same time, this token would also be needed for the second stage of your tests." The tall skinny immortal continued, "I suppose there are a great number of you who bought the manual from Tianshui Court, but unfortunately, I have to tell you that the framework of this year’s test had undergone changes, so I am going to tell you the rules for the test for Spiritual Root now."
"What? There are changes?" "Oh no, I spent 800 Primordial Stone on it!" A commotion started among the crowd.
"All quiet!" A great force greater than that of the pressure in the beginning, came down upon them and immediately, a number of candidates fell to the ground and silence ensued. What followed was another group of yellow shadows that emerged to carry the fallen people away.
Fear fell upon the remaining cultivators participating in the tests as they were afraid that another wave of powerful figures would come once again.
"This test would not be the touching of the stele but rather, the Tiankui beast, one of the Ten Divine Beasts of Chaos, would be invited to conduct the test. The divine beast, Tiankui was able to detect any form of skills and cultivation you possess. Regardless of your type of cultivation, your race and the type of Spiritual Root bodily constitutions, all would be revealed before it. The minimum criteria for going for this test would be the same as before, which is that the candidates must at least have attained the Qi Refining level!" The tall skinny immortal scanned his eyes on the candidates below and continued, "Therefore, if there are still some among you who had not attained the criteria, please step out to leave right now, in which case, you will not be punished! However, if the Tiankui beast was to realize it, we will not be so merciful! Either your skills and cultivation would be completely destroyed or your life may be at stake. Do consider this carefully!"
Lyu Liang was taken aback! He was still rather confident if all he had to do was to touch the stele. However, to deceive the divine beast of chaos… he did not even dare to think of the consequences! This was no joke! If his cultivation was thus destroyed completely or he were to lose his life, and this risk was not worth taking! Lyu Liang still had many things waiting him to do, and thus he would never allow himself to die in this unworthy place!
As expected, a number of cultivators started to leave once the tall skinny immortal finished speaking. Indeed everyone was fearful of the consequence of trying to fool the divine beast of chaos! All of them believed that the Sword Character Immortal Palace would take this seriously.
Lyu Liang decided to take it easy and give up. He did not want to sacrifice his life here, thinking that there would be another sect that was more suitable for him. He should continue to search for another suitable sect! Just when he was about to withdraw with the others, Blackie, who had been ignoring him said, "Liang, stay behind!"
"What? Didn’t you hear that the administrator of the test would be the divine beast of chaos, the Tiankui beast？I’m too lowly skilled to participate!" Lyu Liang said, resigned.
"Don’t worry, listen to me. The beast is my fifth little brother! I have already communicated with him. This would actually be the easiest test for you!" Blackie’s voice sounded confident.
"Oh, alright!" This was great! Lyu Liang was suddenly filled with hope for the future. Not only had his anxiety vanished, he started to study the expressions on the other candidates’ faces, saying, "Oh yes, do you think the Fairy Immortals would be able to see through me?"
"What? I’m an accomplished cultivator in the Jiejie Space. If I even will for them not to see anything, they would not be able to! Unless, of course if they search your soul," Blackie said with confidence.
"Alright, times up! If there are still some among you who should not be here, it’s just too bad!" the tall skinny immortal waved his hand as a large screen descended upon the town square and it covered all the cultivators. He continued saying, "If there are any among you who possess special body constitutions, you may proceed directly to the group of Fairy Palace disciples. You do not need to participate in the second item of the test but can become a Fairy Palace disciple immediately. Will the first fifty come forward now!"
The test officially began! One could see at this moment a silvery petite figure emerging from the top of the head of the founding father of Sword Character. At a closer look, it was a unicorn. It slowly flew forward and nodded towards the tall skinny immortal.
There was a flash of light on top of its head and the cultivators participating in the tests in front of the beast were instantly surrounded by a circle of light, and each of them started spitting out their cultivation and aura from his mouth.
"Awesome! Apparently, number 3, 8 and 26 are in their Early-stage of the Foundation Establishment level! And number 35 actually belonged to the Devil Clan?" Lyu Liang could immediately sense the aura from all 50 candidates, while the rest who were standing around also had a knowing look on their face.
Almost simultaneously, the tall skinny immortal fixed his gaze upon the four who did not qualify and they instantly flew out and fell outside the screen of light. On one of the struggled to get up on his feet after vomiting blood while the rest of were lying motionless on the ground and no one knew if there were alive of dead!